Why Ancient Greeks Might Have Had Much Different Colors Than We Do

As a philosopher who studies the meaning of color, Mazviita Chirimuuta is well aware that philosophy can easily get stuck on that topic. In her recent book, Outside Color, Chirimuuta tries to move beyond one of the major hang-ups when thinking about color, arguing that the property should be defined not by the world outside or inside our heads, but an interaction of both.

Here she discusses one way in which people can use very different ideas to refer to, and think about, colors. For more on the philosophy of color, watch her whole Ingenious interview.